1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to mobile computer devices, and more specifically to classifying files on the mobile computer device as either personal data or work-related business data.
2. Description of the Related Art
In today's enterprise environments, IT departments must weigh two competing approaches for employees connecting to the company's network and computer systems. The first approach is that IT departments require control of the mobile computer devices that connect to the company's network and computer systems, by issuing company owned devices to employees and implementing strict computer security policies. However, for other business operations the IT departments allow employees to buy their own personal smartphone or other personal mobile computer device to connect to the company's network and computer systems, which can save the IT department money and improve company productivity.
The IT departments have tried to balance these competing approaches by requiring the same strict computer security policies regardless of whether the employee is using a personally owned device or a standard yet order generation company owned device. Trying to balance these competing approaches can lead to conflict between the IT departments trying to enforce the strict computer security policies and employees.
It is known for IT departments to have strict computer security policies for personally owned devices and for company issued devices, wherein the computer security policies can include wiping the device of all data in response to a person, presumably a thief, incorrectly entering an invalid password a specified number of times. However, such policies can adversely affect more than company data if an end-user is using a personal smartphone or other personal mobile computer device for both personal use and to connect to the company's network and computer systems for work-related use. For example, if an unauthorized person gains possession of the employee's (i.e., owner's) mobile computer device being used by the employee for personal and work-related purposes, and the unauthorized person enters an invalid password too many times, then both personal data and work-related business data (i.e., company data) can be destroyed based on the company's strict computer security policies. However, the owner may not wish his or her personal data to be deleted, for example, if the unauthorized person is a child of the owner. Thus, the challenge of identifying and segmenting personal data and company data when enforcing a company's strict computer security policies continues to persist.